Why Are So Many More Celebrities Seen With BlackBerry Devices As Compared To iPhones?

It seems like it is kind of of a slow day as far as BlackBerry related news goes, so, I figured that I would throw a question out there for discussion that colleague asked me this morning.

Why are so many more celebrities seen with BlackBerry devices as compared to iPhones?

As many of you long time RIMarkable readers know, we spun off a category, Celebrity BlackBerry Sightings, into it’s own site a few years back. For a site that does little more than display mostly paparazzi style photos of famous people with BlackBerrys, Celebrity BlackBerry Sightings gets a ridiculous amount of traffic.

Now, I am not saying that there aren’t a lot of celebs who use iPhones. There most certainly are. But, when compared to the number of BlackBerry toting famous folk out there, their numbers seem almost insignificant.

The comments are open to all who want to weigh in on why this is the case, or, why I am completely off base.

Comments

Here’s my take…Blackberries are king when it comes to communication. Celebrities, businessmen and women, politicians and most all people who live busy lives that are comprised of reaching outr and being reached will be seen with a Blackberry. The iPhone is a cool device, but serious folk stick with the Blackberry….Ask the President

Your completely off base Robb, is Rimarkable down on hits this month? Or did you feel today was a good day for a subjective thread based on fanboy dreams (fanboys of the BB and iPhone)?

Maybe the numbers tilt toward the BB since the BB has been on the market longer?

Maybe the numbers tilt toward the BB since the BB is available on more than just one of the four orifices?

Maybe Celebrities can’t handle or are slow to pick up new technology?

Maybe this thread skews reality and tries to push the idea that “So Many More Celebrities Seen With BlackBerry Devices As Compared To iPhones” to soothe the pain or questions of BB users as they decide which device to move forward with.

Lmao at the rocks comments “Celebrities can’t handle or are slow to pick up new technology?”The I phone software is a is very easy 2 understand so that question is dumb in it self 2nd the blackberry curve that was released after the i phone and that one phone alone when it was out 4 only 2 american carriers out sold the i phone…..the reason why more celebs choose bb’s is because its a serious phone the i phone is a toy and a play phone serious people need serious phones

I’d have to agree with The Boss. I mean, look at the way he writes and his total disregard for proper grammatical form. For a second there, I thought he had a thing against frivolous use of periods. If The Boss believes the iPhone software is very easy to understand (the jury’s still out on whether he can understand it himself), then surely the celebrities should be able to learn to use it quite easily? Or at the very least, hire a publicist or media relations manager to use the iPhone on their behalf.

I think it’s because they probably have/had an iPhone and have found that when it comes to being able to effectively communicate, they find it easier on the Blackberry. I’ll give it to Apple, they made a great phone, when it comes to a service provider, they should have thought longer and harder about going with AT&T. Their service is definitely not as strong as Verizon’s in the states.

It could also possibly have to do with the fact that there’s a lot of different styles of Blackberrys where as there’s just one style iPhone. You can get it in white, black, and I’ve seen pink but otherwise they all look the same. There’s a ton of different styles and options with the Blackberry. Why go out and buy a different colored car when everyone else is driving that same car? When you’ve got money and an image, you want to be as unique as possible, for some ironic reason, Apple doesn’t truly allow that.

I’m going to have to agree with a lot of the previous comments. There’s different style BlackBerry smartphones, there’s different service providers, ease of communication, and most importantly, there’s picture messaging.

I come here to read about Blackberry and all I see lately is you posting about iPhone, iPhone, iPhone. Robb, stop trying to justify for yourself why you should not get an iPhone and just get one already! It seems like you will be happier with it. Until then, stop posting these iPhone posts on why you think you should still be running this site and using a Blackberry.

I do a lot of event photography and assist on a lot of photo shoots. I’m amazed that BB seems to have 90%+ share among models, and I’ve met hundreds of them. Every Playboy playmate I’ve met (20-30 of them) has a Blackberry, and the parlance is always “what’s your BBM?” and “BBM me when you get to the club,” etc. I really expected them all to use iPhones but it’s just not the case.

I love how all you BB weenies are mentioning security, push email, encryption as reason for celebrity adoption. Like any of these bird brained celebs even know what any of that mean. The reason they use them, they get them for free. Its that simple. You can all touch yourself thinking celebrities are using BBs for some higher purpose. I know better.

The primary reason we see so many Blackberry users as opposed to iPhone users is simple, the iPhone only works on the AT&T network. I’ll be a vast majority of the Blackberry users are Verizon Wireless customers because that network is the most reliable.

i travel a lot in the southeast: fla, ga,sc tenn. etc. and was with att&t for around 12 yrs & switched to verizon about four yrs ago. from my experiences, verizon wins by a large margin. with att&t i experienced multiple dozen instances of no coverage areas & just got sick of it, and terminated my contract before it expired.

i have encountered some weak signal areas but not one instance of no coverage with verizon.
my dislike of verizon came quickly upon discovering their practice of disabling phone features, but i need reliable connectivity and coverage.

@Cubbyc This statement about celebrities using Verizon is not valid. Not that I have done any research, but if you look at photos you see lots of other devices. Some are on TMobile (you can tell by the colors of the devices) but lots of Bolds, which are only on ATT here in the US.

I think a lot of celebrities get them for many of the reasons stated here: More choices, full keyboards (vs touchscreen), picture messaging, and mostly BB Messenger. Howard Stern got a Bold recently and his whole crew all have BBs. They always talk about sending BB Messenger to each other. McLovin from SuperBad just got a Blackberry and tweeted about BB Messenging all day.

Celebrities are just like us, regular folks, except they have a lot more money than we do, and they seem to be liked by a lot of people. Just because some random famous person has a BlackBerry does not mean that BlackBerry phones are better than iPhone, does it?

I just love the “trolls” on a BlackBerry Blog making such inane statements like, “…today was a good day for a subjective thread based on fanboy dreams….”. Subjective thread?? It’s a BlackBerry blog for crying out loud. Why are you here in the first place if you’re not gonna expect us (me) to post positive things about our phones?? Do you not like your phone?? Well, if yes, go to YOUR Apple/iPhone blogs and rant all you want about YOUR phone. And YOU know exactly who I’m talking to. You like to post things like “new technology” but can’t explain what this “new technology” is. I’ve found over the years that iPhone users really don’t have much of an argument when you ask them to explain what they’re talking about. They just bash instead. Oh yeah, and flash is coming to BlackBerry by Summer 2010. The iPhone will never have flash….EVER!! Your boss says it runs too slow on your device. Awww…..but I have “new technology”….*sad face and tears*

LOL!! What’s this nonsense about celebrities not being able to make decisions for themselves?? No, that’s YOU guys being shackled to your iTunes that can’t make decisions for yourself. That’s exactly what the maker of your phone thinks and that’s why he doesn’t allow you to do anything with your phone unless you ask your mommy (iTunes).

If all of these people are talking about how BlackBerry devices are more “professional,” and more for “business use,” then they should be honest about their opinions and respect other smartphones. Instead they talk about how childish iPhone is and how it is for kids.

I do not see a “professional” saying something like that about his or her competition. If you look at some “professionals” like Jamie Dimon (J P Morgan CEO), do you think he says that Capital One, or Citi, issued credit cards are childish but not J P Morgans, that cards issued by his company are more professional than the other two? No thats not “professional.”

My point is if a BlackBerry user thinks his or her device is “professional” then respect the fuck out of everyone else’s opinion, whether that opinion is about iPhone, Pre, or any other phone. Otherwise that BlackBerry is childish also.

Verizon, actually, is quite notorius for locking down phones, including BlackBerries, on their network. It really hasn’t been until recently that they’ve loosened the iron grip of what they allow and don’t allow. You used to not be able to use built in features such as GPS until just recently. I think that the Tour was the first Verizon BlackBerry to have its GPS completely unlocked.

As a Blackberry addict, I noticed many people that use Blackberry in lieu of an Iphone are people that need a SMARTPHONE. IPHONES are cool, no doubt. But I cannot see myself fighting with applications, and having to close apps to open new ones. I like to use my messengers, my pandora, my email, texting, and Tweetcaster all at the same time. Blackberry users know how, and multitask 24/7. The IPHONE, truly are for people that want to look look, and cannot multitask. IPHONE people are for the ADD, and the lemmings..lol J/k

I almost ditched my new 3GS to Bold. Loved Bold! If only it could handle Gmail/IMAP better… The day it happens I will jump to Blackberry with no regrets! Too much of stupideness Apple is creating with their App store, and actually, I am so annoyed to be one of lemmings using the iPhone. It’s too boring already. (But love Apple’s hardware – laptops

i personally use a blackberry because i worked in software and then finance since 2000 and i began using bb’s when they first came out cause my jobs gave them to me. however, that doesn’t prevent me from being curious about the iphone. it’s a darn sexy phone and i hear their are tons of cool apps. of course, i’m an uneducated consumer at this point as this is purely based on what i’ve heard and i haven’t taken time to really research the product.

anyway, i read a lot of comments to gain insight from users of each product for shopping and comparative reasons and it is alarming the hate and venom that is spewed by apple, imac and iphone users that claim there is no equal to the products produced by apple.

as much of the time, i agree that apples makes killer products and software and often like a kid at an apple store, i’m often dissuaded to make the plunge to buy a mac or iphone because of the hate and arrogance that comes from many of the users. however, i do own two ipods and several accessories for it.

i’ve had arguments with friends who are loyal mac fans who can’t seem to live with the fact that i’m ok with my two year old toshiba laptop and blackberry phone and not considering the airbook or whatever clever item apple has created.

isn’t it ok to have options? isn’t it ok to not have a mac? does that make me less of a person? am i automatically downgraded as not smart enough? or what i often see on here, i’m not rich enough to own a mac? that one still perplexes me.

afterall, i’m no genius. i didn’t finish top of my mba program at stern and considering that i earn over twice as much as most of my mac wielding friends, i would imagine i can afford them. however, maybe mac users are just better at managing money than i.

anyway, the initial comment of this thread is a fair question/statement. we often do see more influential people using bb’s. that’s a fact. maybe not one that will always remain that way, but it is true today. perhaps it’s simply because like myself, i’ve been using one for years now and although the corporate folks over at blackberry probably aren’t nearly as smart as the ones at apple, perhaps they’ve done a “decent” job in capturing and retaining market share in a very competitive environment over the years.

i don’t think it takes anything away from the iphone. it’s a great product and as it becomes more available and new versions and or possibly newer models come out, perhaps bb won’t be used by so many in the near future, but until then…apple fanboys/flamers…give it a rest.

Just to speak to the eternal iPhone vs BlackBerry debate. Let me pose one question to you. How many of you Apple fanboys or RIM fanboys have used the “other” handset? I’ll wager not very many of you.
I have a Bold 9700 and an iPhone. Before you flame me about carrying two phones and demand some explanation, lets leave the why I do at this – I carry both iPhone and BlackBerry because I CAN.
In my experience, I use my BlackBerry 90% of the time. Thus can be derived, my 9700 outclasses the iPhone in 90% of the things that I do. If I watched more movies on my phone, the iPhone would get more attention. The BB gets better reception, the speaker quality is better, the email/messaging is delivered more efficiently, and the #1 reason? Multitasking. I’ll plug the iPhone into the car to listen to music on iTunes, but if i want Pandora, for instance, I’ll use the BB, since I won’t need to exit the app to respond to a text. Oh yeah, and the flash for the camera is nice, and Flash for the web will be better.
Again, I speak specifically to my own experiences, and yours may vary, but I invite to seriously try arguing that point with me. The end, thanks for playing.

THIS IS SIMPLE, THE BB IS MORE ABOUT EMAILS AND THE I PHONE IS MORE ABOUT WEBSITES. THE BB IS A BETTER FIT FOR A PROFESSIONAL TYPE PERSON AND THE IPHONE IS A BETTER FIT FOR ANYONE OTHER THAN…PERSONALLY I LIKE THE BB BETTER AND ALOT OF PEOPLE DONT LIKE THE TOUCH SCREEN ON THEIPHONE AS WELL.

more celebrities are using the iphone 4 now for example, Kelly osborn, Kevin and Joe jonas, Miley Cyrus, Ashley Green, Demi Lovato, Lindsay lohan, Jay Z, etc because the new iphone is more business like now. furthermore, blackberries and iphone are for business and they both are great phones.